Header image

Opening Ceremony

The Local Organizing Committee is proud to announce the Keynote Speaker for the Opening Ceremony of the Congress on August 29th, Prof. dr. Tony Venables who will deliver his Keynote Speach "Urbanisation in Developing Countries" and Prof. dr. Philip McCann who will reflect on the keynote speech. Tracy Metz will be the moderator for the Opening Ceremony.The Opening Ceremony will be followed by the Welcome Reception offered to you by the University of Groningen, the Municipality of Groningen and the Province of Groningen 


Prof. dr. Tony Venables, 
is Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford where he also directs the Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Econometric Society. Former positions include Chief Economist at the UK Department for International Development, professor at the London School of Economics, research manager of the trade research group in the World Bank, and advisor to the UK Treasury.
He has published extensively in the areas of international trade and spatial economics, including work on trade and imperfect competition, economic integration, multinational firms, and economic geography. Publications include ‘The spatial economy; cities, regions and international trade’, with M. Fujita and P. Krugman (MIT press, 1999), and ‘Multinationals in the World Economy‘ with G. Barba Navaretti (Princeton 2004).



Prof. dr. Philip McCann, is professor of Economic Geography at the Universities of Sheffield and Groningen and is Tagliaferri Research Fellow at the Department of Land Economics at the University of Cambridge. He is one of the world’s leading economic and spatial geographers of our time, who has produced much research and is most cited by many colleagues. In addition McCann was advisor of the European Commission, the OECD and the European Investment Bank.




Tracy Metz, journalist and author about urban issues. She writes for NRC, De Groene Amsterdammer and Architectural Record and is a correspondent for the Radio1 talkshow De Ochtend. Tracy is director of the John Adams Institute, the center of American culture in the Netherlands and has her own live talkshow Stadsleven, about living in cities. 





loading